Garage door opener now a bedroom door closer

[Roy] had an extra garage door opener on hand and decided to put it to use as a remote control closing mechanism for his bedroom door. We gather he has some noisy housemates as the inspiration for the project came from not wanting to get out of bed to close the door when the ruckus interrupts his TV watching.

The image above shows the hinged system which translates the linear motion from the garage opener track to the rotational force necessary to swing the door closed. We’d say he really nailed it because the system matches the angle of the door jamb perfectly, and when the door is fully open the angle bracket is almost flat against the wall. We certainly don’t have the same need for closing doors, but the mechanism is something to keep in mind.

The motor for the opener is hidden beneath his desk. You won’t be able to see it in the video after the break because he built a matching enclosure around it. Now he just needs to add some WiFi connectivity and he can ditch the uni-tasking RF remote for a smart phone app.

Interesting hack and re-use of what would otherwise be in a landfill I suppose…

I’d be a little worried about getting out of the room in a hurry with the opener in the “closed” position–possibly in a fire or power outage–but the linkage seems flimsy enough that you could possibly kick it up out of the way or something…

I’ve gotta agree with “fartface”, good luck getting a date to stay in your room when you have a fairly loud mechanical door closer like that! :D

Those operators are load sensing but I don’t know if the sensitivity could be set to a safe level in this application.

It’s clever, but I would sell/install the operator in someone’s garage and use the money to by spring hinges and beer.

Another idea: A colleague of mine, at the garage door company where I work, said he was in a customer’s house where the childrens’ playroom was accessed by a sliding wall operated by a residential trolly operator like this one.